Billboards have also been erected in County Galway to congratulate McDonagh on the success of his film – in Gaelic.

The placards said the London-born director, who has Irish parents, was both a “big star of Hollywood” and a “big star of Leitir Mealláin”, a village in Connemara.

Earlier this month, Three Billboards star Frances McDormand devoted part of an awards ceremony acceptance speech to saluting the various initiatives.

“I appreciate a well-organised act of civil disobedience, and I am thrilled that activists all over the world have been inspired by the set decoration of the three billboards in Martin’s film,” she said at the Bafta Film Awards in London.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is up for seven Academy Awards on Sunday, including best picture.